Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay People: Coming-Out and Internalized Sexual Stigma.

Very few studies have focused specifically on coming out (CO) in bisexual people, showing that bisexual people have a lower level of CO compared to lesbian and gay (LG) people. Some researchers have found that CO to family correlates significantly and negatively with internalized sexual stigma (ISS). The present study intended to (1) investigate the differences between women and men and between bisexual and LG people in the CO to family; and to (2) explore the variables associated to CO family process, such as ISS, age, religiosity, political orientation, education level, having a stable romantic relationship, and the presence of LGB friends/colleagues. Data were collected on 108 gay men, 98 lesbian women, 57 bisexual women, and 28 bisexual men, with ages ranged from 15 to 33 (LG people: M = 27.5, SD = 4.3; bisexual people: M = 26.4, SD = 5.7). LG participants were more likely to reveal their sexual orientation in family compared to bisexual people, F(1,290) = 31.34; p < .001, ηp2 = .10. In addition, women participants were more likely to reveal their sexual orientation in family compared to men participants, F(1,290) = 4.13; p =.043, ηp2 = .01. As expected, we found that the CO to family was negatively correlated with ISS (r = –.29, p <.01) and the political orientation (r = –.13, p <.05). Conversely, the CO to family was positively correlated with the age (r = .15, p <.05), the presence of a stable romantic relationship (r = .21, p <.01), and with higher presence of LGB friends and colleagues (r = .13, p<.05). These results underlined the role of ISS and the major difficulties that bisexual people find respect to LG people in CO in family. Clinicians should take into account that their bisexual clients may face additional prejudice because their being a minority within a minority. It’s also important to promote interventions of inclusion and tolerance both in the society in general, but also in the LGBT community.